Dale Brockman Davis
The Brockman Gallery
Dale & Alonzo Davis were
brothers who began the Brockman Gallery in 1967 at 4334
Degnan Blvd. They grew up in LA and when graduating
from college with degrees in art, were warned that they
better get a teaching credential because they would
have nowhere to show their art. Having no luck with
the established art galleries they decided to begin
their own – a gallery dedicated to exhibiting minority
artists. They eventually controlled a whole row of storefronts
on Degnan and provided artists spaces to live and work
as well as to hang their work.
The Brockman Gallery nurtured the early careers of respected artists like David Hammons and John Outterbridge, and many more established black artists also exhibited there – Elizabeth Catlett, Charles White, John Biggers, Noah Purifoy and Romare Bearden, among numerous others.
They began a nonprofit arm
of the gallery using grants, etc. from the federal government
that sponsored concerts, art exhibits and community events.
Horace Tapscott and the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra,
among others, played at these all day events – free to
the public. The Brockman Gallery closed in 1989, but
the cultural renaissance it fostered during the 70's and
early 80's continues. |